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marmar
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February 8, 2021
The Urgent Need for SCOTUS Reform, By The Numbers
The highest court in the land does not represent the interests of the American people. It doesn’t have to be this way.
CLARA LIANG FEBRUARY 4, 2021
(In These Times) In the wake of the Capitol attacks and Joe Biden’s ascension to the White House, Donald Trump’s rushed confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court has become something of an afterthought. Still, the critiques of her confirmation process?—?as well as the questions they raised?—?have never been more urgent. With Democrats now in control, SCOTUS reform is back on the table. Last week, President Biden began staffing a bipartisan commission dedicated to examining the Supreme Court and federal judiciary, following through on a pre-election promise to address a court system that’s “getting out of whack.”
As the only branch of government that does not answer directly to the American people, the judiciary has enjoyed a bloated influence in our politics. Nine disproportionately white, male, and wealthy Supreme Court justices have enormous sway over personal and partisan issues that affect the entire populace. And stare decisis, the principle by which the Court adheres to precedent, means that it is decidedly conservative in its outlook. Why should a handful of unelected judges determine the fate of healthcare, reproductive access, LGBTQ equality and voting rights?
....(snip)....
What’s worse, Supreme Court appointments allow presidents to set an ideological agenda that long outlives their time in office. Selecting justices is one of the most important powers a president has (and sometimes vice-versa). The hypocritical sparring match between Democrats and Republicans that accompanies these appointments has become an embarrassing tradition. Today, the Court is a political weapon that threatens, rather than nurtures, democracy.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, Article III of the Constitution, which establishes the existence of a Supreme Court, is quite vague in its prescription for the judicial branch. The Founders set no constitutional stipulations regarding the age, experience, or citizenship of Justices. Many details?—?like the size of the Court, which has fluctuated over time?—?were left to the President and Congress to decide. There exist a number of (widely supported) ways to fix the Court, from eliminating lifelong terms for justices to revoking their power to choose their own cases. ................(more)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/us-supreme-court-statistics-history-judiciary-rbg-trump-biden
The Urgent Need for SCOTUS Reform, By The Numbers
The Urgent Need for SCOTUS Reform, By The Numbers
The highest court in the land does not represent the interests of the American people. It doesn’t have to be this way.
CLARA LIANG FEBRUARY 4, 2021
(In These Times) In the wake of the Capitol attacks and Joe Biden’s ascension to the White House, Donald Trump’s rushed confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court has become something of an afterthought. Still, the critiques of her confirmation process?—?as well as the questions they raised?—?have never been more urgent. With Democrats now in control, SCOTUS reform is back on the table. Last week, President Biden began staffing a bipartisan commission dedicated to examining the Supreme Court and federal judiciary, following through on a pre-election promise to address a court system that’s “getting out of whack.”
As the only branch of government that does not answer directly to the American people, the judiciary has enjoyed a bloated influence in our politics. Nine disproportionately white, male, and wealthy Supreme Court justices have enormous sway over personal and partisan issues that affect the entire populace. And stare decisis, the principle by which the Court adheres to precedent, means that it is decidedly conservative in its outlook. Why should a handful of unelected judges determine the fate of healthcare, reproductive access, LGBTQ equality and voting rights?
....(snip)....
What’s worse, Supreme Court appointments allow presidents to set an ideological agenda that long outlives their time in office. Selecting justices is one of the most important powers a president has (and sometimes vice-versa). The hypocritical sparring match between Democrats and Republicans that accompanies these appointments has become an embarrassing tradition. Today, the Court is a political weapon that threatens, rather than nurtures, democracy.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, Article III of the Constitution, which establishes the existence of a Supreme Court, is quite vague in its prescription for the judicial branch. The Founders set no constitutional stipulations regarding the age, experience, or citizenship of Justices. Many details?—?like the size of the Court, which has fluctuated over time?—?were left to the President and Congress to decide. There exist a number of (widely supported) ways to fix the Court, from eliminating lifelong terms for justices to revoking their power to choose their own cases. ................(more)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/us-supreme-court-statistics-history-judiciary-rbg-trump-biden
February 8, 2021
Dying of Covid in a 'Separate and Unequal' L.A. Hospital
(NYT) LOS ANGELES — Over the New Year’s holiday, the grown children of two immigrant families called 911 to report that their fathers were having difficulty breathing. The men, born in Mexico and living three miles from each other in the United States, both had diabetes and high blood pressure. They both worked low-wage, essential jobs — one a minibus driver, the other a cook. And they both hadn’t realized how sick they were.
Three weeks later, the men — Emilio Virgen, 63, and Gabriel Flores, 50 — both died from Covid-19. Their stories were hauntingly familiar at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital, by size the hardest-hit hospital in the hardest-hit county in the state now leading the nation in cases and on the brink of surpassing New York with the highest death toll. In the intensive care unit on Jan. 21, Mr. Virgen became No. 207 on the hospital’s list of Covid-19 fatalities; Mr. Flores, just down the hall, became No. 208.
The New York Times spent more than a week inside the hospital, during a period when nearly a quarter of all Covid inpatients there were dying, despite advances in knowledge of the disease. It was an outcome that approached that of some New York hospitals last spring, when the city was the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. That rise coincided with a surge of cases in Southern California, a doubling of the mortality rate in Los Angeles hospitals over all and the spread of a new local strain that may be more transmissible than the more prevalent one.
Eight out of ten of those who died at M.L.K. hospital were Hispanic, a group with the highest Covid-19 death rates in Los Angeles County, followed by Black residents. County data also showed that the most impoverished Los Angeles residents, many of them around the hospital in South Los Angeles, are dying of the disease at four times the rate of the wealthiest. ....................(more)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/08/us/covid-los-angeles.html?
February 8, 2021
The Religious Right’s Rhetoric Fueled the Insurrection
And it continues to fan fear and rage.
BY PETER MONTGOMERY FEBRUARY 8, 2021
(The American Prospect) The morning after the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol interrupted but failed to stop congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election, The Dove Christian television network’s morning news program featured hard-right activist John Guandolo telling viewers that the insurrectionists showed “restraint” by not executing the “traitors” in Congress.
“I don’t see any other way out than a real armed counterrevolution to this hostile revolution that’s taking place, primarily driven by the communists,” said Guandolo, who trains law enforcement agencies to view Muslims as terrorist threats.
Guandolo’s call for civil war on a channel called “The Dove” was far from the only pairing of religious fervor and calls for violence by Trump supporters seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
....(snip)....
Right-wing pastors, religious-right leaders and activists, and conservative Christian media aggressively promoted then-President Donald Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 presidential election in a landslide and that it was being stolen from him and his supporters.
These leaders and media outlets inflated the stakes of Trump’s re-election campaign and post-election efforts to “stop the steal” by portraying them as part of a spiritual war between good and evil. In their telling, Trump was the divinely anointed leader of the forces of light, and his opponents were agents of Satan bent on crushing religious freedom and destroying the American republic. Prayer and calls for spiritual warfare were blended with invocations of “1776.” ............(more)
https://prospect.org/politics/religious-right-rhetoric-fueled-the-capitol-insurrection/
The Religious Right's Rhetoric Fueled the Insurrection
The Religious Right’s Rhetoric Fueled the Insurrection
And it continues to fan fear and rage.
BY PETER MONTGOMERY FEBRUARY 8, 2021
(The American Prospect) The morning after the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol interrupted but failed to stop congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election, The Dove Christian television network’s morning news program featured hard-right activist John Guandolo telling viewers that the insurrectionists showed “restraint” by not executing the “traitors” in Congress.
“I don’t see any other way out than a real armed counterrevolution to this hostile revolution that’s taking place, primarily driven by the communists,” said Guandolo, who trains law enforcement agencies to view Muslims as terrorist threats.
Guandolo’s call for civil war on a channel called “The Dove” was far from the only pairing of religious fervor and calls for violence by Trump supporters seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
....(snip)....
Right-wing pastors, religious-right leaders and activists, and conservative Christian media aggressively promoted then-President Donald Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 presidential election in a landslide and that it was being stolen from him and his supporters.
These leaders and media outlets inflated the stakes of Trump’s re-election campaign and post-election efforts to “stop the steal” by portraying them as part of a spiritual war between good and evil. In their telling, Trump was the divinely anointed leader of the forces of light, and his opponents were agents of Satan bent on crushing religious freedom and destroying the American republic. Prayer and calls for spiritual warfare were blended with invocations of “1776.” ............(more)
https://prospect.org/politics/religious-right-rhetoric-fueled-the-capitol-insurrection/
February 8, 2021
In a major break for Central Florida taxpayers, a state transportation leader said Thursday his agency will continue to cover costly operations of SunRail commuter rail for nearly three more years during construction of a $44 million extension to DeLand.
The Florida Department of Transportation announcement during a meeting of local mayors and commissioners appeared to resolve a pair of thorny and longstanding challenges for the nearly seven-year-old SunRail system, which has struggled to gain popularity with riders.
Whether or not to complete a 12-mile gap between DeBary and DeLand in Volusia County has triggered backlash from that county’s leaders, who have insisted in recent years it would be too costly and not useful for residents. ............(more)
https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/news/21209019/fl-floridas-push-of-sunrail-to-deland-means-state-keeps-commuter-rail-for-3-more-years
Florida's push of SunRail to DeLand means state keeps commuter rail for 3 more years
In a major break for Central Florida taxpayers, a state transportation leader said Thursday his agency will continue to cover costly operations of SunRail commuter rail for nearly three more years during construction of a $44 million extension to DeLand.
The Florida Department of Transportation announcement during a meeting of local mayors and commissioners appeared to resolve a pair of thorny and longstanding challenges for the nearly seven-year-old SunRail system, which has struggled to gain popularity with riders.
Whether or not to complete a 12-mile gap between DeBary and DeLand in Volusia County has triggered backlash from that county’s leaders, who have insisted in recent years it would be too costly and not useful for residents. ............(more)
https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/news/21209019/fl-floridas-push-of-sunrail-to-deland-means-state-keeps-commuter-rail-for-3-more-years
February 8, 2021
(Slate) The year between this Super Bowl and the last one was one of the worst and weirdest in modern American history. There was a pandemic. (The pandemic is still happening.) The president had an impeachment trial. (Amazingly, this is also still happening.) A bunch of violent right-wing idiots stormed the U.S. Capitol. (This literally just happened.) John Prine died. (This will probably not happen again.) Approximately 4,700 other memorably terrible things happened, too, and going into Super Bowl LV, the question on my mind was how the brands of the world would respond to this awful year in the commercials they’d paid millions to air during the big game.
They mostly didn’t. Sure, a bunch of ads referred obliquely to the past year being a rough one, though most skipped over the particulars of why it was so rough. Others offered vague calls for national unity, even as they conveniently forgot to mention exactly what it was that’s divided us. Very few of these ads sat well, because you can’t really have an effective unity or sympathy message without specifics—but then again, if you’re buying a Super Bowl ad, you also don’t want to say anything too specific, lest you offend one half or the other of this polarized nation.
So most ads took the safe path and chose not to mention this past year at all. Instead, they posited a world in which everything is fine and has always been fine. (No pandemics here, just lots of random celebrity cameos.) There was some weird stuff and some earnest stuff and some stuff that was actually pretty funny. But in a year in which most of us no longer know what to say, America’s advertising geniuses largely proved no different. It was a rough year for Super Bowl commercials. I am almost positive that this will happen again.
First Quarter
The very first ad after kickoff was for a new M. Night Shyamalan movie, which is apparently about a spooky beach that makes you prematurely old, or something like that. The second ad after kickoff was for M&M’s, which always delivers clever, punchy Super Bowl spots that do their job of reminding you that M&M’s exist and that perhaps you should eat some. This year’s ends with Schitt’s Creek actor Dan Levy attempting to apologize to a bunch of anthropomorphic candy pieces for having consumed so many of their brethren. The twist is that Levy has yet another sentient M&M locked inside his car, trying desperately to escape before it, too, meets the same fate. The moral: Don’t trust Schitt’s Creek actor Dan Levy. Anyway, I look forward to the M. Night Shyamalan adaptation of this spooky premise sometime in 2022. ...............(more)
https://slate.com/business/2021/02/super-bowl-commercials-2021-best-worst.html
The Best (but Mostly the Worst) Super Bowl Commercials of 2021
(Slate) The year between this Super Bowl and the last one was one of the worst and weirdest in modern American history. There was a pandemic. (The pandemic is still happening.) The president had an impeachment trial. (Amazingly, this is also still happening.) A bunch of violent right-wing idiots stormed the U.S. Capitol. (This literally just happened.) John Prine died. (This will probably not happen again.) Approximately 4,700 other memorably terrible things happened, too, and going into Super Bowl LV, the question on my mind was how the brands of the world would respond to this awful year in the commercials they’d paid millions to air during the big game.
They mostly didn’t. Sure, a bunch of ads referred obliquely to the past year being a rough one, though most skipped over the particulars of why it was so rough. Others offered vague calls for national unity, even as they conveniently forgot to mention exactly what it was that’s divided us. Very few of these ads sat well, because you can’t really have an effective unity or sympathy message without specifics—but then again, if you’re buying a Super Bowl ad, you also don’t want to say anything too specific, lest you offend one half or the other of this polarized nation.
So most ads took the safe path and chose not to mention this past year at all. Instead, they posited a world in which everything is fine and has always been fine. (No pandemics here, just lots of random celebrity cameos.) There was some weird stuff and some earnest stuff and some stuff that was actually pretty funny. But in a year in which most of us no longer know what to say, America’s advertising geniuses largely proved no different. It was a rough year for Super Bowl commercials. I am almost positive that this will happen again.
First Quarter
The very first ad after kickoff was for a new M. Night Shyamalan movie, which is apparently about a spooky beach that makes you prematurely old, or something like that. The second ad after kickoff was for M&M’s, which always delivers clever, punchy Super Bowl spots that do their job of reminding you that M&M’s exist and that perhaps you should eat some. This year’s ends with Schitt’s Creek actor Dan Levy attempting to apologize to a bunch of anthropomorphic candy pieces for having consumed so many of their brethren. The twist is that Levy has yet another sentient M&M locked inside his car, trying desperately to escape before it, too, meets the same fate. The moral: Don’t trust Schitt’s Creek actor Dan Levy. Anyway, I look forward to the M. Night Shyamalan adaptation of this spooky premise sometime in 2022. ...............(more)
https://slate.com/business/2021/02/super-bowl-commercials-2021-best-worst.html
February 8, 2021
Trickle down Trumpism: How Pennsylvania's Republican Party radicalized against democracy
Pennsylvania's GOP has betrayed the best parts of the state's heritage by professing fealty to Trump
By MATTHEW ROZSA
FEBRUARY 8, 2021 11:00AM
(Salon) It was very, very chilly in my corner of Pennsylvania the morning of last fall's election. I live in Northampton County, a swing county in this very large swing state, a county so reflective of America as a whole that it has picked the president on all but three occasions since 1920. It was one of 206 counties out of America's 3,141 that voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 before flipping to Donald Trump in 2016. In 2020 it would once again pick the winner by backing Joe Biden — but I didn't know that at the time, nor did Trump and many of his supporters, who would go on to act like sore losers on a historic scale — and betray our state's core values in the process.
At least one Trump supporter seemed to be trying to intimidate the waiting voters at my precinct, passing our polling place multiple times in a large truck covered in pro-Trump paraphernalia and blaring music. As it turned out, my precinct went to Biden by a very narrow margin, but more than two-thirds of those who voted in-person supported Trump. In a way, that moment encapsulates Pennsylvania politics. People in this county, part of an eastern region of the commonwealth known as the Lehigh Valley, are generally kind and laid-back folk regardless of their political views. As with the rest of America, however, there is a poisonous undercurrent emanating from the right-wing that is both tragic and dangerous. Sometimes it merely manifests itself in obnoxious boosterism, such as the macho posturing displayed by the driver of that pro-Trump truck. On other occasions, it becomes literally dangerous to democracy, as Americans saw earlier this month when a mob of Trump supporters (some of them Pennsylvanians) was egged on by the president to swarm the Capitol so they could overturn Biden's victory.
Unfortunately, that toxicity has trickled up, transforming the Pennsylvania Republican Party in the process.
As a recent Politico article noted, a state GOP that only a few decades ago was renowned for producing independent-minded moderates like Sens. Arlen Specter and John Heinz and Govs. William Scranton and Dick Thornburgh has now bent the knee to Trumpism. All but one of the House Republicans in Pennsylvania's congressional delegation voted to invalidate the commonwealth's electoral votes, which were won by Biden. They did this even though Trump lost all of the voter fraud-related cases he brought to court (many presided over by Republican judges), lost all but one of the overall legal cases he pursued and was told by his own attorney general, William Barr, that the Department of Justice's investigation into the election had found Biden's win to be legitimate. They did this even though Trump had incited a riot on the Capitol — making him the first of America's 11 incumbent presidents to lose a bid for another term and respond by attempting to stay in power through force — and despite the fact that Trump has undermined his own credibility for years by communicating as far back as 2016 that he only accepts an election's results if he is declared the winner. They did this even though Trump has not provided a shred of evidence of widespread fraud, much less on a scale necessary to give him a victory, and even though Trump was caught on tape threatening Georgia election officials to "find" the votes he needed to win there. ............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2021/02/08/trickle-down-trumpism-how-pennsylvanias-republican-party-radicalized-against-democracy/
Trickle down Trumpism: How Pennsylvania's Republican Party radicalized against democracy
Trickle down Trumpism: How Pennsylvania's Republican Party radicalized against democracy
Pennsylvania's GOP has betrayed the best parts of the state's heritage by professing fealty to Trump
By MATTHEW ROZSA
FEBRUARY 8, 2021 11:00AM
(Salon) It was very, very chilly in my corner of Pennsylvania the morning of last fall's election. I live in Northampton County, a swing county in this very large swing state, a county so reflective of America as a whole that it has picked the president on all but three occasions since 1920. It was one of 206 counties out of America's 3,141 that voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 before flipping to Donald Trump in 2016. In 2020 it would once again pick the winner by backing Joe Biden — but I didn't know that at the time, nor did Trump and many of his supporters, who would go on to act like sore losers on a historic scale — and betray our state's core values in the process.
At least one Trump supporter seemed to be trying to intimidate the waiting voters at my precinct, passing our polling place multiple times in a large truck covered in pro-Trump paraphernalia and blaring music. As it turned out, my precinct went to Biden by a very narrow margin, but more than two-thirds of those who voted in-person supported Trump. In a way, that moment encapsulates Pennsylvania politics. People in this county, part of an eastern region of the commonwealth known as the Lehigh Valley, are generally kind and laid-back folk regardless of their political views. As with the rest of America, however, there is a poisonous undercurrent emanating from the right-wing that is both tragic and dangerous. Sometimes it merely manifests itself in obnoxious boosterism, such as the macho posturing displayed by the driver of that pro-Trump truck. On other occasions, it becomes literally dangerous to democracy, as Americans saw earlier this month when a mob of Trump supporters (some of them Pennsylvanians) was egged on by the president to swarm the Capitol so they could overturn Biden's victory.
Unfortunately, that toxicity has trickled up, transforming the Pennsylvania Republican Party in the process.
As a recent Politico article noted, a state GOP that only a few decades ago was renowned for producing independent-minded moderates like Sens. Arlen Specter and John Heinz and Govs. William Scranton and Dick Thornburgh has now bent the knee to Trumpism. All but one of the House Republicans in Pennsylvania's congressional delegation voted to invalidate the commonwealth's electoral votes, which were won by Biden. They did this even though Trump lost all of the voter fraud-related cases he brought to court (many presided over by Republican judges), lost all but one of the overall legal cases he pursued and was told by his own attorney general, William Barr, that the Department of Justice's investigation into the election had found Biden's win to be legitimate. They did this even though Trump had incited a riot on the Capitol — making him the first of America's 11 incumbent presidents to lose a bid for another term and respond by attempting to stay in power through force — and despite the fact that Trump has undermined his own credibility for years by communicating as far back as 2016 that he only accepts an election's results if he is declared the winner. They did this even though Trump has not provided a shred of evidence of widespread fraud, much less on a scale necessary to give him a victory, and even though Trump was caught on tape threatening Georgia election officials to "find" the votes he needed to win there. ............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2021/02/08/trickle-down-trumpism-how-pennsylvanias-republican-party-radicalized-against-democracy/
February 8, 2021
https://twitter.com/briantylercohen/status/1358608062752256001?s=20
LOL. When a tweet mixes politics, the Superbowl and pop culture perfectly.
https://twitter.com/briantylercohen/status/1358608062752256001?s=20
February 8, 2021
Gaines Township — A 26-year-old Hartland man died after being struck in an explosion during a baby shower, Michigan State Police said Sunday.
The incident occurred at 7:30 p.m. Saturday when a small cannon device was fired in the back yard of a home in Genesee County.
The family celebrating the baby's pending arrival with the homewoner firing the cannon, which blew up, causing shrapnel to strike the man, identified by police as Evan Thomas Silva, who was standing nearby, police said.
Silva was taken in serious condition to Hurley Medical Center in Flint, where he later died. ..............(more)
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/michigan/2021/02/07/baby-dies-shower-cannon-explodes/115448872/
Michigan man, 26, killed after cannon used at baby shower explodes
Gaines Township — A 26-year-old Hartland man died after being struck in an explosion during a baby shower, Michigan State Police said Sunday.
The incident occurred at 7:30 p.m. Saturday when a small cannon device was fired in the back yard of a home in Genesee County.
The family celebrating the baby's pending arrival with the homewoner firing the cannon, which blew up, causing shrapnel to strike the man, identified by police as Evan Thomas Silva, who was standing nearby, police said.
Silva was taken in serious condition to Hurley Medical Center in Flint, where he later died. ..............(more)
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/michigan/2021/02/07/baby-dies-shower-cannon-explodes/115448872/
February 7, 2021
(Bloomberg) -- In making the case for a mammoth $1.9 trillion economic relief package, President Joe Biden and his acolytes had maintained that economists across the board agreed that now is the time to go big in the fight against the pandemic.
Well, so much for that. A number of prominent economists and former policy makers -- from Democrat Lawrence Summers to Republican Douglas Holtz-Eakin -- have raised questions in the past week about the size of the package. So too have some economy watchers in the financial markets.
While they don’t disagree that the U.S. needs additional help, they’ve highlighted the potential costs of doing a whole lot more: Economically, there’s the risk of much faster inflation and a stock market bubble. And politically, it could reduce the appetite in Congress for future fiscal action to tackle longer-term priorities such as infrastructure spending and fighting climate change.
....(snip)....
But Summers, who is a paid contributor to Bloomberg, argued that the Biden team needs to be cognizant of the risks they are taking with their ambitious plan.
“There is a chance that macroeconomic stimulus on a scale closer to World War II levels than normal recession levels will set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation,” he wrote for the Post. “I worry that containing an inflationary outbreak without triggering a recession may be even more difficult now than in the past.”........ (more)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/yellen-summers-spar-overheating-risk-190000583.html
Larry Summers, please go away
(Bloomberg) -- In making the case for a mammoth $1.9 trillion economic relief package, President Joe Biden and his acolytes had maintained that economists across the board agreed that now is the time to go big in the fight against the pandemic.
Well, so much for that. A number of prominent economists and former policy makers -- from Democrat Lawrence Summers to Republican Douglas Holtz-Eakin -- have raised questions in the past week about the size of the package. So too have some economy watchers in the financial markets.
While they don’t disagree that the U.S. needs additional help, they’ve highlighted the potential costs of doing a whole lot more: Economically, there’s the risk of much faster inflation and a stock market bubble. And politically, it could reduce the appetite in Congress for future fiscal action to tackle longer-term priorities such as infrastructure spending and fighting climate change.
....(snip)....
But Summers, who is a paid contributor to Bloomberg, argued that the Biden team needs to be cognizant of the risks they are taking with their ambitious plan.
“There is a chance that macroeconomic stimulus on a scale closer to World War II levels than normal recession levels will set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation,” he wrote for the Post. “I worry that containing an inflationary outbreak without triggering a recession may be even more difficult now than in the past.”........ (more)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/yellen-summers-spar-overheating-risk-190000583.html
February 7, 2021
Fears of a 'twindemic' are over: The US has seen a 98% drop in flu hospitalizations, likely due to COVID-19 measures
Public-health experts prepared for a "twindemic" as fall approached last year: a double threat of the coronavirus and the seasonal flu.
But even as cold, dry weather descended on the Northern Hemisphere and COVID-19 cases surged, the US and UK have experienced historically mild flu seasons.
Between October 1 and January 30, just 155 Americans were hospitalized with the flu, compared to 8,633 during roughly the same time frame a year ago. That's a 98% decrease. Labs in the US have collected and tested more than half a million samples for the flu since late September, but just 0.2% of those samples tested positive (1,300 in total), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Every US state is experiencing "minimal" flu activity, the agency reported. That's in contrast from last season, when 22,000 Americans died of the flu. ...........(more)
https://www.businessinsider.in/science/news/fears-of-a-twindemic-are-over-the-us-has-seen-a-98-drop-in-flu-hospitalizations-likely-due-to-covid-19-measures/articleshow/80724773.cms?
Fears of a 'twindemic' are over: The US has seen a 98% drop in flu hospitalizations, likely due to..
Fears of a 'twindemic' are over: The US has seen a 98% drop in flu hospitalizations, likely due to COVID-19 measures
Public-health experts prepared for a "twindemic" as fall approached last year: a double threat of the coronavirus and the seasonal flu.
But even as cold, dry weather descended on the Northern Hemisphere and COVID-19 cases surged, the US and UK have experienced historically mild flu seasons.
Between October 1 and January 30, just 155 Americans were hospitalized with the flu, compared to 8,633 during roughly the same time frame a year ago. That's a 98% decrease. Labs in the US have collected and tested more than half a million samples for the flu since late September, but just 0.2% of those samples tested positive (1,300 in total), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Every US state is experiencing "minimal" flu activity, the agency reported. That's in contrast from last season, when 22,000 Americans died of the flu. ...........(more)
https://www.businessinsider.in/science/news/fears-of-a-twindemic-are-over-the-us-has-seen-a-98-drop-in-flu-hospitalizations-likely-due-to-covid-19-measures/articleshow/80724773.cms?
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